CHAPTER 18: A FEARFUL ENCOUNTER
Rosa yelped as someone slammed into her side. She twisted around and collided with another student, and another.
"Jared! Jimmy! Art!" She kept calling their names, but could barely hear herself over the screams of the stampeding Hogwarts students around her. It seemed impossible her friends would hear her.
The crowd carried Rosa further down the corridor. She tried to force her way through the mass of bodies. Most of her effort, though, went to keeping her legs moving, to stay on her feet, to not fall and get trampled.
She whipped her head around, looking for a way out of this mob. They passed several doors. If she could just get into one of those rooms she could wait out the human stampede and double-back to rejoin Jared and the others.
A solid wall of bodies prevented her from reaching any of the doors.
The mob fled down a staircase. Someone slammed into her back. Fear gripped her as she stumbled forward . . . and right into the back of a blond girl. She clutched the girl's shoulder for a second, regained her balance and kept running.
They reached the bottom of the staircase. Rosa looked over her shoulder. How far was she from her friends?
A deep thud echoed through the corridor. The students screamed even louder. A dark mass blossomed near the mob. A black substance fell onto several boys and girls. And the smell! Rosa gagged until she nearly puked.
Someone had set off a dung bomb. Probably one of the D.A. members. All part of Fred and George's master plan of chaos.
The shrieking crowd split in two directions. Rosa saw a break in the human wave, and a door beyond it.
She darted for it.
A panicked student bumped into her. Rosa stumbled into another student and spun around.
Don't fall. Don't fall.
She flailed, trying to keep her balance.
Rosa fell spread-eagled on the stone floor. Something struck her leg. She gritted her teeth and looked behind her. A pudgy boy had tripped over her.
Rosa lifted herself to all fours, trying to ignore the pain clutching her muscles. She scurried for the door and reached up for the handle. It turned. She pushed it open and crawled inside. Rows of desks greeted her. She leaned against a chair and stared outside at the fleeing students. The muffled explosion of another dung bomb reached her ears, followed immediately by panicked screams.
Three students rushed into the classroom. Two were boys, one thin with black hair, the other short and blond with puffy cheeks. The girl had a slender build and long blond hair. None of them looked older than fourteen. Rosa scanned their robes and spotted a blue and bronze crest with an eagle on each of them. Ravenclaw House.
Thank Merlin for that. The last thing I need is to share this room with some damn Slytherins.
"Are you all right?" The short boy stared at her.
"Yeah. I'll be fine."
The girl's eyes bulged. "You're American?"
Rosa opened her mouth to answer. It remained open without a sound. Oh crap!
"Bugger!" blurted the thin Ravenclaw boy. "She must be one'a those mercenaries Jimmy O'Bannon brought with him."
"Oh you don't believe that rubbish, Cumhal, do you?" asked the girl.
"It's nay rubbish, Gwen. You heard everything Professor Umbridge said."
"Please. Everyone knows Umbridge is mental."
"Watch your mouth!" Cumhal scowled at Gwen, who seemed unimpressed. "Professor Umbridge is a fine woman. Me dad's worked with her at the Ministry. Says her loyalty to the Ministry is beyond reproach."
"She's beyond sane, is what."
More anger lines dug into Cumhal's face. "And I suppose you believe all of Potter's lies about You-Know-Who returning?"
Gwen bit her lip for a few moments. "Maybe I do."
Cumhal and Gwen continued to argue, while the other Ravenclaw boy stood silently in the background. Rosa checked the corridor. She saw no students running past the door.
"You know," she said to the Ravenclaws. "I have places to be, so I think I'll just leave you guys to your little argument. Have a blast."
Rosa made for the door.
Cumhal jumped in front of her. "Y-You're not going anywhere."
Rosa sighed. "Look, kid. I don't have time for this."
"Merlin's sake." Gwen rolled her eyes at Cumhal. "What are you on about?"
"She's wanted by the Ministry." He pointed at Rosa. "I-I bet if we capture her, we'd win loads of points for Ravenclaw. Maybe even get medals from the Ministry."
"You're daft," said Gwen. "You really believe she's a mercenary here to overthrow Minister Fudge?"
"That's what Professor Umbridge said."
"Look, Cumhal." Rosa held up a hand, speaking calmly. "Your friend here is right. I'm not a mercenary. In fact, me and Jimmy O'Bannon and our friends came here to help your country. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna go now."
"You're not going anywhere!" Cumhal went for his wand.
Rosa went for hers. With six years in the Salem Witches Institute Dueling Club and growing up in a family of aurors, she was much, much faster.
"Expelliarmus!"
Cumhal barely pulled his wand out of his robes when it flew from his hand and across the classroom. He gaped as it clattered off the wall and onto the floor. Slowly, he rotated his head back to Rosa. His body trembled.
"Puh-Please don't hurt me."
"Oh relax. I'm not gonna hurt you." Rosa breezed past him. When she reached the door frame, she turned back to the Ravenclaws. Cumhal gawked at her, still quaking. Gwen gazed at her in awe. The other boy tried to blend in with the wall.
"It's still nuts out there," Rosa told them. "If I were you, I'd stay here until things settled down. Got it?" She fixed her eyes on Cumhal. The unblinking boy nodded.
"Good luck." Gwen smiled at her.
Rosa returned the smile and left.
She scanned the corridor, wand raised. No sign of any people. The dark remains of dung bombs stained the floors, walls, suits of armor and tapestries. It also reeked, nearly as bad as the holes in the ground where trolls did their business.
Holding her breath, Rosa darted down the hallway and into another corridor. This one was also devoid of people. She halted and listened. Screams carried through the air, but none close by.
She chewed on her lower lip, wondering what to do next. Look for Jared, Jimmy and Artimus? Where could they be? Perhaps they were looking for her. In that case, they could run around this castle for hours without meeting up.
I doubt we have hours to get out of here.
She considered heading to the Quidditch pitch. That was their ultimate destination anyway. Maybe the boys already decided to go there and wait for her.
Would you?
No, she wouldn't. If any one of them had been separated, she would look for them before leaving the castle. So they were probably searching for her right now. The best thing to do would be to hole up somewhere and wait, and hope they eventually came by.
What if they get caught by aurors?
Hopefully the pandemonium created by the D.A. kept the aurors too busy to search for Jared and the others. She also figured Tonks must have incapacitated some of them by now.
Rosa set off down the corridor, her eyes searching for a tapestry to hide behind. She'd wait there until Jared, Jimmy and Art showed up. Well, wait for a while. Then she'd go looking for them.
She turned the corner . . . and halted. Her body tightened. Her eyes went wide at the sight before her.
A Muggle jet airliner filled the corridor, just like the one she and her friends flew here on. Its cone-shaped nose pointed ominously at her.
How is this possible?
The nose vanished. Rosa found herself standing inside the airplane, rows of high-back seats on either side of her.
Everything shook.
She yelped and clutched the back of the nearest seat. Her chest constricted. Sweat burst across her forehead.
Not again. Rosa shut her eyes. Please not again.
The shaking grew more violent. Rosa tightened her grip on the seat. An invisible hand grabbed her and tried to rip her from the seat.
She hated planes. She hated turbulence. A sob grew in her throat. The plane would shake itself to pieces. She would die.
This isn't possible. How could she go from the corridors of Hogwarts to the inside of a Muggle plane?
Realization stabbed through her panic.
It's the boggart. Fred and George said they'd release one from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. That's all this was. An illusion. Her greatest fear brought to life by this damned creature.
You know how to stop it.
Rosa loosened her grip on the seat.
A violent quake nearly threw her across the compartment.
She bearhugged the back of the seat. Stop. Please stop.
You have to stop it, a harsh voice called out from the back of her fear-clouded mind.
She could do it. She'd defeated boggarts before in DADA class. The spell to defeat them wasn't that difficult.
So long as you suppressed your fear.
How can I? I hate this plane. I hate turbulence. I'm gonna die here!
No you're not. You're in a hallway at Hogwarts. Not on a plane.
Rosa gripped her seat for dear life, fighting to stay on her feet.
You can do it.
She didn't let go of the seat.
How do you expect to be an auror if you can't beat a damn boggart?
Do it!
Rosa gritted her teeth. With a grunt she pushed herself away from the seat.
It's an illusion. It's all an illusion.
The world around her shook. Tremors raced throughout her body. She stumbled back and forth. Her right hand dug into the top of the seat next to her.
I can do this.
She raised her wand. The image she wanted formed in her mind.
"Riddikulus!"
The seats vanished. The shaking stopped. The Muggle airplane shrank to the size of a broom, its wings and body made from fat balloons that shifted color from pink to yellow. The nose sported a huge toothy grin. Along the side were the words DUMB DUMB AIRLINES.
Rosa forced herself to laugh.
The balloon plane turned around and shot down the corridor, vanishing from sight.
"Screw you!" Rosa shouted at the departed boggart. "Go annoy some aurors."
She wiped her sweaty brow and sucked down a couple deep breaths. Composed, she scanned the corridor, looking for a hiding place. She prayed Jared, Jimmy and Artimus came this way. The sooner they got out of . . .
Something clicked behind her. A footstep.
Rosa started to turn.
A wooden rod dug into her back.
"Don't move."
TO BE CONTINUED